Sonification for Sonic Interaction Design

This paper advocates a closer connection between the emerging field of sonic interaction design and that of sonification. We firstly discuss the issue of information conveyance by sound in everyday interactions, including HCI and product interaction design. Existing sonification techniques are examined, to identify principles for displaying information by sound during interaction, focusing particularly on Model-Based Sonification. We present two implementations: the Data Solids Sonification Model for exploratory data analysis, and the Shoogle system for mobile phone interactions. Both exemplify aspects of sonic interactions that connect well to the users' intuitions. Finally, the Sonic Interaction Atlas is introduced, a prototype community application that allows for the archival and organization of information in existing sonic interaction design cases, and for the generation of new scenarios during early-stage design research by aiding exploration of the suitability of different sonic interaction models. It is hoped that the Atlas may be useful for revealing the possibilities of physically-based sonic interaction methods that may connect well to users' intuition and innate capacities.